Sunday, January 14, 2007

From the Harvard Government Innovators Network, "Philadelphia will take advantage of new statistics software to predict which recent probationers are most likely to reoffend. Developed using research about thousands of previous crimes, the city's new Strategic Anti-Violence Unit (SAV-U) uses computer models to forecast which individuals may commit crimes again. Armed with this information, SAV-U can target resources, such as drug treatment, education, and counseling, more efficiently."

well, in fairness, Mithras, they only say "most likely" to reoffend -- that obviously means that there will be a substantial error, but perhaps one that's small enough to justify the large-scale redirection of government resources. we have to make sure that any such program is implemented in a way that protects parolees and released inmates from harrassment and other over-interpretation of the results...